There is still an element of the crypto “Wild West” in 2020, as cryptocurrency stolen through hacks and ransomware attacks is still being cashed out on major exchanges around the world. Ransomware attacks have proved to be a lucrative cash cow for cybercriminals over the past few years, with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation estimating that over $144 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen between October 2013 and November 2019. A press conference held by the FBI in February revealed the huge amount paid out in ransom to attackers by victims that were desperate to regain access to …

The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant against a 16-year-old Massachusetts resident in connection with the massive Twitter breach. According to a New York Times report, on Sept. 1, authorities raided the home of a 16-year-old boy who may have played an “equal, if not more significant role” in the infamous July 15 hack, which resulted in millions of followers of high-profile Twitter accounts being falsely offered 2-for-1 “giveaways“ for any Bitcoin (BTC) sent. The investigation revealed that he may have posed as a Twitter employee or contractor to fool legitimate ones into entering their login credentials to …

The Ethereum Classic (ETC) network was hit by another 51% attack on August 29, causing the reorganization of more than 7,000 blocks just weeks after proposing security upgrades. In a tweet, Ethereum Classic confirmed the attack and promised it is working on potential solutions to the problem. “While ETC is still making progress in evaluating proposed solutions, we are aware of the current risk to the network at these low hash rate levels. To miners, exchanges, and other service providers we suggest keeping confirmation requirements levels well above 7K for now.” The attack comes a few weeks after developers proposed …

Crypto International, a successor of controversial Swiss company Crypto AG, is reportedly dismissing dozens of employees following a major spying scandal. As many as 70 employees had to quit Crypto International after Crypto AG was found to be selling backdoored products to benefit agencies such as the United States Central Intelligence Agency in February. The firm reportedly confirmed the dismissals to Switzerland-centred publication Swissinfo.ch on Friday. Representatives at Crypto International reportedly said that the dismissals were unavoidable because the government recently refused to resume the examination of export applications. Andreas Linde, co-founder of Crypto International, reportedly said that the action …

A group of North Korean hackers is engaged in a massive campaign targeting U.S. financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world — with U.S. authorities warning of the high level of threat it poses to the country. According to an alert issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agencies including the FBI, the U.S. Cyber Command, and the Department of the Treasury are moinotiring the resurgence of the North Korea-sponsored hacking group, BeagleBoyz. The hackers have not been as active in the last few years as the notorious Lazarus Group – another hacking group from the hermit …

A Reddit user operating under the name “seraf1990” warned of a copy & paste crypto scam that replaced a wallet address he copied from Coinbase with one belonging to scammers. According to seraf1990, he lost about $350 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) — money that he notes was meant to go towards his rent for next month. The post explains that seraf1990 was attempting to cash out some BTC by sending it from Binance to his account on Coinbase. After copying the exchange’s Bitcoin wallet address, he pasted it into the appropriate field back on Binance and completed the transaction “without …

The crypto price surge since March has been accompanied by a wave of cryptojacking attacks according to new research published by cybersecurity firm Symantec. According to the company there was a 163% increase in browser-based cryptojacking activity in the second quarter of 2020. Cryptojacking had previously been in a steep decline from March 2019 due to the shutdown of the mining script maker, CoinHive. Symantec points out the increase in the last quarter coincided with a surge in the value of Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR), two cryptocurrencies often mined by the threat actors that rely on browser-based cryptojacking malware. …

Lazarus, a group of hackers who are allegedly backed by North Korea, is now reportedly attacking crypto and blockchain talent through major professional social network, LinkedIn. According to a report by the Finnish cyber security and privacy firm, F-Secure, the latest Lazarus attack was made through a crypto-related job advert on the site. Their investigation indicated that an individual working in the Blockchain space received a phishing message that mimicked a legitimate Blockchain job listing. The message included an MS Word document titled “BlockVerify Group Job Description,” which executed malicious macro code when opened. F-Secure found that the document shares …

Curve Finance is currently the third largest DeFi protocol, with a total value locked, or TVL, of $1.1 billion. Recently the community realized that the project's founder, Michael Egorov, had leveraged over 71% of the voting power, ultimately leading to backlash from the community. Andre Cronje, the founder of popular DeFi protocol yEarn.Finance, tweeted: Source: Twitter. The protocol's next vote is scheduled for August 28. While Egorov's share has gone down somewhat, he still controls over 50% of the vote at press time. YFValue was launched last week with a congenital bug that would have allowed its creators to permanently …

Empire Market, a major darknet marketplace for buying and selling illicit goods, has been offline for over 48 hours as of press time. Customers have begun to raise concerns about whether a distributed denial-of-service attack is causing the site to stay offline — or if something bigger is afoot. Twitter user Dark.fail, an anonymous journalist specializing in the Tor Project, suggested that the blackout “feels more stressful than [Empire market’s] frequent” downtime in 2019 when DDoS attacks kept the site offline for extended periods of time. Someone claiming to be one of Empire’s head moderators, named “Se7en”, issued an ambiguous …

The modus operandi of crypto scammers differ in each case as it happens with the rest, but this time, a popular Youtuber who has 2.43 million subscribers explained on August 20 how his channel was seized by hackers to launch an XRP fake giveaway campaign. According to a video published by David Damasceno, who runs Universo Curioso, cybercriminals took control of his account after receiving a contact request from an individual offering him a video editing tool. The fake software was called Zenium Editor, which also handles advertising revenues, and when Damasceno downloaded and installed the app, the damage has …

The new work-from-home culture is gaining more traction than ever before as businesses, government departments and schools try to remain afloat while flattening the pandemic curve. This migration to remote working is a double-edged sword that creates a fertile land for cybercriminals to thrive on. There is no way that cyberattacks can be eliminated completely. The best that companies can do is minimize the frequency of the threats. What is ransomware? Cybercriminals use malicious software code to block people or organizations from accessing their computer systems until a ransom has been paid. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) have made it …